


it struck me that the two of us could run

by smoakoverwatch



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Belated honeymoon, F/M, Here be spoilers, angst-ish, based on the popular speculation, paper thin plot, post elseworlds crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 19:26:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16980378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smoakoverwatch/pseuds/smoakoverwatch
Summary: [spoilers for elsewords] After coming back from Central City, all Oliver wants to do is take a vacation. Felicity doesn’t know what’s going on, but she plans on getting to the bottom of it.





	it struck me that the two of us could run

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a rogue idea and a reaction to the popular theory that Oliver’s clock is ticking thanks to the crossover’s ending (which, for the record, I’m not sure if I want to believe). Nothing much here plot wise, but I’m struggling to write fic these days and I hoped this would help. 
> 
> Title from Vampire Weekend – Run

When Oliver gets back from Central City, Felicity isn’t sure what she expects.

Okay, she knows a  _little_ what she expects. More talking about their fight. More… other things, related to making up on their fight. Maybe just a day or two where they can relax from the latest crazy late-fall adventure they were thrown into, before getting back to business. 

But Oliver comes home and he starts… packing a suitcase.

A sight that would be alarming if he didn’t also start shoving some of her summer dresses (pushed regretfully to the back of the closet) into the mounting pile as well.

“Oliver,” she puts her book down on the bed, where she had been waiting for him, and walks over, “What are you doing?”

He looks at her with almost wild eyes for a moment, but they are instantly tamed.

“Hi,” he breathes out, leaning down for a quick kiss, “We should go to Aruba.”

Whatever Felicity’s expecting him to say, that is certainly not it.

She blinks.

“I’m sorry?”

“Aruba,” he repeats, as though it’s the most obvious thing in the world, “Or Bali? Bali was nice. But we’ve seen it already. Somewhere we haven't been yet is better. Plus, Aruba is what we planned on before everything went to hell.”

He says the last bit slightly breathless, sounding not unlike she does on a tangent.

“Oliver, what’s going on?” Felicity tries, “You’re acting strange.”

“We should finally go on our honeymoon,” he says, “I know I’m a year late, but we couldn’t travel when I was under indictment, and then I was in Slabside, but now…”

He trails off with almost a grim expression that is quickly shuttered.

“It’s the perfect time,” he says, forcing a smile, “We have two more weeks until William’s winter holiday starts, things have been so crazy lately, I think we deserve a chance to just… Be together.”

He takes her hand.

“Okay,” Felicity breathes, “Okay, but… Right now? Like, right this second?”

She gestures to the open suitcase with a mountain of their clothes on it.

“Now is the best time, don’t you think?” Oliver reasons, “Before the latest criminal or problem in the city takes up all our time?”

“I’m just a little surprised that this is coming from you,” she admits.

“I know, it’s just…” Oliver looks down, “When I woke up in Central City… And I didn’t have you, and I realized there was a chance that I couldn’t get any of this back… It just made me realize I can’t keep wasting anymore time.”

Felicity chews on her lip. Packing a bag, running away and exploring the world, it’s something they did once upon a time. It’s certainly not the people they are anymore. It’s quite the opposite of what they talked about just a few days ago.

But there’s something in Oliver’ eyes that tells her he’s not looking for that. He’s looking for something else, with barely contained desperation.

“You’re thinking about it,” he says, “Don’t think. Just say yes. We can leave tonight.”

Let it be known that, for all Oliver says she’s impossible to say no to, she can’t deny him what he wants either.

“Okay,” she says, laughing slightly as the familiar rush at the spontaneity fills her, “Let’s do it.”

* * *

Three days later, Felicity is still stunned that they pulled this off. They booked their tickets at home, the resort in the cab on the way to the airport, and the rental car on the plane.

It’s warm, slightly overcast, she observes through the large window in their hotel room. The sound of Oliver in the shower hums quietly as Felicity is left alone with her thoughts. Normally, she would have used the chance to meander in there, but things have changed now.

There’s something so familiar and so alien about this trip. Nostalgia hits her in the way they live out of their suitcases, in how she combs through her hair with her fingers because she forgot to pack a hairbrush, in the way she laughed breathlessly with Oliver as they ran across the airport to catch their connecting flight out of JFK.

But it’s almost melancholic. As much as sometimes she wishes they were the same people who left Starling City and all its problems—when their biggest problems were the League of Assassins and Ras’s madness— she knows they’re not.

Oliver’s not. Not since Central City.

But Felicity doesn’t push. Not because, since they’ve gotten here, Oliver’s been nothing but loving, and passionate, and so attentive, as though if he looks away from her for a second she’ll disappear.

She doesn’t push because she can see the tension behind every smile and whispered declaration of love, in the way his grip tightens in embraces for a moment before it relaxes. She can see there’s something there—there’s always something there, but frankly she’s scared.

Because the last time she saw that tension there was the lie about William, then there was the deal to go to prison, and she doesn’t want to tempt the universe and ask what could possibly be worse than either of those things.

So she ignores it all. They go on tours in the mornings and take pictures for everyone back home, they walk along the beach at sunset and try exciting food, they lose themselves in each other at night. It has all the trappings of a perfect vacation, if Felicity tries hard enough to push away the feeling in her gut.

It’s only at the end of their trip, waiting through an hour delay at the airport, that Felicity finds her courage once more.

Oliver’s reading a book he picked up from one of the airport stores. The novel can’t be longer than a few hundred pages, and the wear on the cover tells her it’s seen better days, but he seems to be engrossed in it.

When he feels her eyes on him, he looks up.

“Is something wrong?” he frowns.

She shakes her head.

“This vacation was perfect,” she comments.

“I’m glad,” Oliver says, bookmarking the page in his book to give her a wide smile, “I thought it was just what we needed.”

Any other time, she would have agreed with him. It should have been the perfect break, the perfect chance to heal together and to grow closer and celebrate their love. Instead it feels like a heartbreaking repeat of their past mistakes.

So she does what she avoided for the past week and a half—she pushes.

“Can I ask you something?” she says, “I know you said we should do this because it felt like the perfect chance but… I can’t help but think there was something more.”

The question goes unspoken.

Oliver leans back in his seat, staring out to the airport ahead of him. There’s a family seated in front of them, two parents trying to prevent a kid no older than five from running off into the vast space.

“When everything happened with Barry, and I didn’t tell you,” Oliver admits, “He pushed me to make up with you. He said, in our line of work, we never know how much time we have. He was right. Especially after the year we had, I wanted to start making every moment count. With you, with William…”

“So, that’s what it is?” Felicity asks with a wry smile, “A newfound appreciation for life?”

Oliver huffs out a laugh.

“I guess you could say that,” he says, “I just feel like… After everything we’ve gone through, we deserved something good, don’t we?”

He looks almost insecure at even suggesting it, and Felicity realizes he’s actually asking her.

“Oliver,” she takes his hand and tangles it in with hers, “Of course we do. You know that.”

His shoulders relax just enough.

“Is that all it was, then?” she asks—of course she has to ask one last time, just to be sure, “You’d tell me if there was something going on, right?”

His fingers twitch in hers. It’s so small and unnoticeable that anyone else who doesn’t know Oliver Queen like Felicity does would miss it. It’s how she knows the next words out of his mouth will be a lie.

“Of course. There’s nothing else going on.”

He leans in to kiss her, and distantly she can hear that boarding for their flight is about to begin.

“I love you,” he sighs against her lips when they part.

Felicity just wishes for once it was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone liked this enough and would care, I might write an angsty companion piece in Oliver’s POV. Maybe. 
> 
> twitter - smoakoverwatch  
> tumblr - overwatchandarrow


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